h1b lottery – The Degree Peoplehttp://www.thedegreepeople.com
Credential Evaluation ServiceSat, 17 Mar 2018 17:19:16 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4Countdown to April 2nd: Your H-1B Last Minute Checklisthttp://www.thedegreepeople.com/countdown-to-april-2nd-your-h-1b-last-minute-checklist/
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 17:19:16 +0000http://www.thedegreepeople.com/?p=4615The H-1B visa is the most competitive US work visa and the H-1B cap for FY 2019 opens in just a few weeks.

This year, USCIS opens its doors to H-1B petitions on Monday, April 2nd and is projected to exceed the cap of 65,000 visas plus an additional 20,000 for candidates with masters degrees or higher by Friday, April 6th. That means, you have to be ready as soon as filing begins to ensure you, or your employee or candidate makes the H-1B lottery.

Don’t let the last minute lure you into filing a sloppy or incomplete petition. Before you file, make sure that the answer and information are consistent across all documents including the LCA, the petition, and all documentation describing the duties and requirements for the job. Inconsistent answers will likely trigger an RFE, and a closer scrutiny of the case.

Common education RFEs occur when a client has a degree specialization that doesn’t match the job, incomplete or generalized education, or a degree from outside of the United States, and the petition is not filed with a credential evaluation that clearly articulates the academic value of your or your employee or client’s education and work experience in terms of US academic value. It is also important to verify that the degree was earned in an accredited institutions.

If you or your client or employee has one of these educational situations, it is important to order a credential evaluation to file WITH the H-1B petition come April 2nd. A work experience conversion may be necessary to account for the gaps between your education, or your client or employee’s education and H-1B educational eligibility requirements.

Last year, CIS issued a record number of RFEs for H-1B petitions, especially for beneficiaries working as computer programmers at level 1 wages. If your client has a borderline job that doesn’t ALWAYS require a US bachelors degree as a minimum requirement according to the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, your case, or your client or employee’s case will need additional evidence including an expert opinion letter to prove why this position is uniquely specialized.

There are some situations that are RFE magnets. If you, or your employee or client:

• Has a degree from outside of the US,

• Has a three-year bachelors degree,

• Has an incomplete degree or no college at all,

• Has a generalized degree or a degree in a major that doesn’t exactly match the H-1B job, or

You need to know before you file and address the situation accordingly to preempt an RFE.

At TheDegreePeople.com, we work with difficult H-1B cases and H-1B RFEs every year. We know what triggers and RFE and we know how to take steps to effectively preempt them. USCIS is always a wildcard, so we keep an eye on their approval trends every year. For a free review of your case, or your client or employee’s case, visit ccifree.com/. We will get back to you in 48 hours or less with a full analysis, pre-evaluation, and our expert recommendations on what to do to avoid an RFE.

]]>Your H1B Checklist for FY 2019http://www.thedegreepeople.com/your-h1b-checklist-for-fy-2019/
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 19:19:03 +0000http://www.thedegreepeople.com/?p=4544April 1st is coming up fast and that means it’s time to get started on H1B petitions for fiscal year 2019.

For the past few years, the H1B quota of 65,000 visas and an additional 20,000 for candidates with US Masters degrees or higher or their equivalency has been met within the mandatory five business days that CIS must continue to accept petitions, causing the H1B lottery. This year, we predict the same situation. That means you need to be ready to file right on April 1st.

Before you file, make sure your petition, or your employee or client’s petition is seamless. With so many petitions and so few annual cap-subject visas available, CIS is on the lookout for shortcuts to make their job easier. Don’t let your petition, or your employee or client’s petition raise any red flags. Make sure the requirements are met, and always be aware of common RFEs and CIS approval trends. At TheDegreePeople, we work with difficult cases and RFEs every year and we keep a close eye on what CIS is doing. Based on what we’ve seen over the past few years, here are some things to keep in mind when organizing the petition:

1. Does the job meet H1B requirements for specialization?

To qualify for H1B eligibility, the job must have a minimum requirement of a US bachelors degree or higher or its equivalent. To prove this, include the ad for the job that specifies its requirements, and include evidence that similar jobs in the industry require the same credentials. If this job requires a unique level of specialization that is unusual to the typical occupation, include a detailed description of the job and its duties and an expert opinion letter explaining why this job requires an advanced degree to perform.

Last year, CIS used this H1B requirement to issue the Level 1 Wages RFE to an unprecedented number of computer programmers petitioning for H1B status. Their reasoning was that according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook by the US Department of Labor, entry level computer programmers are sometimes hired with only a US associates degree, which does not meet the H1B requirement of a US bachelors degree or higher. This RFE caught everyone off guard and we won’t know until RFEs come out for the FY 2019 round of petitions whether or not measures to prevent this RFE will work. However, if you, or your employee or client has this job at this wage level, here are our recommendations: If you can, set the job at Level 2 Wages, or indicate a different occupation if you can. The second option gets tricky because the job on the LCA must match the job on the H1B petition. Before you try to fit your job, or your employee or client’s job into a different category, consult with us to make sure the job title fits the description, and that the job indicated also meets H1B requirements. If you cannot take either of these measures, include an expert opinion letter that explains why this job meets H1B requirements. We have experts on hand 24/7 to help you with this, and we have had great success in answering these RFEs.

2. Does the beneficiary and the employer have an employer-employee relationship?

To meet H1B requirements, the employer must be able to hire, fire, promote and demote, pay, and otherwise control the work the employee does. Along with this relationship comes the H1B requirement to pay the H1B employee the prevailing wages and benefits for similar jobs in that industry in that geographical location. To prove this, include a copy of the employment contract and documentation that details the nature of the employee’s work.

This is another area that CIS came down on H1B candidates last year with the Level I Wages RFE. This issue can be addressed through the means mentioned above. More importantly, it is important to explain the CIS in the expert opinion letter that just because a job is set at Level 1 Wages doesn’t mean it is entry level, and if it is not entry level, it does not mean that the employee is being underpaid. That’s not how wage levels work; there are many factors to be taken into consideration that must be detailed in the expert opinion letter. Including this with the initial H1B petition may be the key to preventing this difficult new RFE.

3. Does the beneficiary clearly meet H1B educational requirements for the job?

H1B educational requirements state that to be eligible the beneficiary must have a US bachelors degree or higher or its foreign equivalent. You, or your employee or client must hold an advanced degree that meets the requirements for the H1B job. For the better part of the past decade, CIS approval trends have shown that the degree specialization must be an exact match for the job title. This is where things get tricky.

If the degree specialization is not an EXACT match for the field of employment, the beneficiary will need a credential evaluation that utilizes years of progressive work experience and a close examination of the courses taken within the degree program to write an evaluation that solidifies the equivalency to the correct degree in the correct field.

If the degree was earned outside of the United States, you will need to include a credential evaluation that clearly spells out the academic value of the degree in terms of US educational standards. Some degrees, like the Indian three-year bachelors degree, are RFE magnets because CIS is hung up on the missing fourth year even if there are an equal or greater number of actual classroom contact hours in the three-year degree. Some jobs like Computer Systems Analysis are RFE targets because there are very few colleges and universities that offer that specific major track.

For these two circumstances, you will need a professor with the authority to issue college credit for work experience to write an evaluation that converts years of progressive work experience in the field of the job into years of college credit. Progressive work experience means that the nature of the work became more complex and specialized, and the beneficiary took on more responsibility as the work experience progressed. This indicates that skills and knowledge specialized to the field were learned on the job. At TheDegreePeople, we have professors on hand with the authority to write these evaluations.

The final hangup with regards to education that tends to trigger an RFE happens when a beneficiary has a degree that doesn’t have the word “degree” in the title. For example, the Indian Chartered Accountancy certification is actually the equivalent of a US bachelors degree in accounting. The Canadian Chartered Accountancy and the US CPA are not bachelors degree equivalents. If you or your client or employee has earned an Indian Chartered Accountancy certification, this credential DOES meet H1B eligibility requirements. You will need to submit a credential evaluation with the H1B petition that clearly describes the steps of education and exams – matriculation structure – required to earn this certification to show that the steps involved are equivalent to a US bachelors degree in accountancy.

Before you file, let us review your client’s entire case to make sure there are no red flags, missing documentation or analysis, or gaps between the beneficiary’s job and education, and H1B eligibility requirements. Simply visit ccifree.com/ and submit the educational documents, resume, and job description and we will respond within 48 hours with a full analysis and pre-evaluation of the case, and our recommendations for how to preempt an RFE for the FY 2019 filing season.

]]>Overturn an H1B Nightmare RFE in Three Stepshttp://www.thedegreepeople.com/overturn-an-h1b-nightmare-rfe-in-three-steps/
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 15:11:58 +0000http://www.thedegreepeople.com/?p=4366It’s RFE season and the prevalence of the dreaded Nightmare RFE is on the rise right along with the rate of RFE responses. We’re not sure what triggers this RFE, and we’re not even sure CIS has the right to make these requests, but they keep on coming.

The Nightmare RFE is virtually impossible to answer by following its own guidelines. However, at TheDegreePeople, we work with these RFEs regularly and with a creative approach have a very high rate of success in getting them overturned and our clients’ visas approved.

Here’s how it works:

Read it.

Sit down with your team and read through the entire RFE carefully. Look at the documentation and evidence that you are being asked to provide. Don’t panic, you won’t have to provide the virtually impossible amount of evidence in the virtually impossible amount of time the RFE states.

Put it down and go back to the original H1B requirements.

This RFE will not tell you how to answer it. The second step is to put the RFE down and return to the initial H1B requirements. In looking at the original H1B requirements in light of the evidence and documentation being requested, you can get a sense of what underlying questions CIS is really trying to answer in requesting the evidence indicated. Answer those underlying questions and you won’t need to jump through the impossible amount of hoops the Nightmare seems to require. Remember, the candidate’s job must be a specialty occupation requiring a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent to perform. The candidate must hold that degree in the exact field of employ or its foreign equivalent. Your client’s employer must be economically viable and pay the H1B worker the prevailing wages for that job for a company of that size in that geographical location. The candidate and the employer must also have an employer-employee relationship in which the employer can hire, fire, promote, pay, supervise, and otherwise control the candidate’s work. Find out which of these requirements were not clearly met, and provide the evidence to fill in the gaps left open in the initial petition.

Go to CCIFREE.COM for a free consultation on how to best proceed.

Visit us for a free consultation on your education situation, or the situation of your employee or client. Oftentimes, what was missing in the original petition was a credential evaluation – or the RIGHT credential evaluation. If you or your employee or client has a degree from outside of the United States, incomplete college, or a degree in a generalized field or field that does not exactly match the H1B job, a credential evaluation is needed so CIS can clearly see the value of the education. Oftentimes, a credential evaluation agency will write an accurate evaluation, but not take the nuances of the H1B visa into account. If you’re wondering why you, or your employee or client got an RFE even though you submitted a credential evaluation, this may be your situation. Did the agency ask about the job or visa? These are two essential components of writing the RIGHT credential evaluation for the H1B visa.

Are you staring down a Nightmare RFE? We can help. Simply go to ccifree.com and submit the candidate’s educational documents and a current, accurate resume and we will get back to you within 24 hours with a full pre-evaluation and analysis, and all of your options moving forward.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of TheDegreePeople.com a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a no charge analysis of any difficult case, RFEs, Denials, or NOIDs, please go to http://www.ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

]]>Your Very Very Last Minute H1B Checklisthttp://www.thedegreepeople.com/you-very-very-last-minute-h1b-checklist/
Sun, 26 Mar 2017 12:19:14 +0000http://www.thedegreepeople.com/?p=4302It’s official! We’re down to the wire and April First is next week. Don’t let the very, very last minute cause you to file an incomplete H1B petition. When it comes to visa approval, just getting it filed is NOT better than making sure it’s complete. Filing an incomplete petition is a waste of time.

Before you file, go through this H1B checklist and make sure you have EVERYTHING checked off.

Consistent dates, locations, spellings and other answers.

Double-check all of the documents and applications included in the petition to make sure all of the answers are consistent. Inconsistencies between applications, educational documents, and resumes can trigger a pretty serious RFE as CIS is cracking down on visa fraud. Inconsistent dates and locations for where the candidate has lived, worked, and gone to school are big red flags, as are misspellings.

Education clearly meets CIS requirements for H1B eligibility.

Find out right now. Simply go to ccifree.com and attach the candidate’s educational documents and an accurate, current resume, along with the job title and we will respond within 24 hours with a full pre-evaluation of your case. We will include all of your options for writing the evaluation for the educational equivalency needed to get the H1B visa approved. We offer rush delivery options to get your credential evaluation to you in as fast as three hours.

Educational requirements for CIS are tricky. If the candidate has a degree from outside of the United States, do NOT file without a credential evaluation. The candidate may have a degree earned in the United States that is not H1B qualified. The degree must be an exact match for the job or CIS will not approve the visa.

Documentation clearly shows the job is specialized.

H1B requirements state the job must require a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent to be considered specialized. The H1B visa program’s purpose is to bring highly skilled workers to the US to fill these highly specialized jobs that the US workforce cannot fill on its own. That means you have to show that the job requires a specialized skillset, which means an advanced degree in the exact field of employ. To prove this, provide a copy of the ad for the job that includes duties and minimum requirements, as well as the official job description itself. Also include ads and descriptions for similar jobs in the same field to show that this job is specialized across the board and not just to accommodate the candidate’s visa. If the job is particularly specialized for this particular company, include an expert opinion letter as to why this is the case.

Organized and in order!

Make sure your petition is in order with all of the paperwork where CIS expects it to be. A disorganized petition is not pleasant to read and this will impact approval. File for the audience and it will pay off in the end.

Good luck!

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

]]>Does the Education H1B Qualify? Find Out Fast!http://www.thedegreepeople.com/does-the-education-h1b-qualify-find-out-fast/
Mon, 20 Mar 2017 03:06:17 +0000http://www.thedegreepeople.com/?p=4298It’s officially down to the last minute! You’ve got a little over a week to get the H1B visa petition filed in time for April 1st, and since this year is predicted to follow the trend of those before, you won’t have long before CIS closes its doors.

Don’t let the last minute cause you to file an incomplete petition that will only get met with an RFE or worse. CIS educational requirements have changed in the past few years and they’ve just gotten stricter. Your education, or the education of your employee or client alone may not be enough to get their visa approved. You will have to submit a credential evaluation along with the petition to clearly show that the candidate meets H1B educational requirements.

At TheDegreePeople, we have been working with H1B cases for a LONG time, and we are well versed in the nature of your needs in the last weeks before filing season. Do not hesitate to contact us for rush services. We can have evaluations completed and sent to you within hours as needed.

Here are some common situations where candidates run into trouble:

Education from outside of the United States

If your degree, or if your employee or client’s degree is from any country besides the United States, you will need a credential evaluation to show US equivalent academic value. CIS will not accept the transcripts as is. H1B requirements state candidates must have a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent. CIS cannot discern academic equivalency for foreign degrees without a credential evaluation stating what the foreign degree means in terms of US academic value. If your petition, or if your employee or client’s petition makes the lottery with a foreign degree but no evaluation, you can count on an RFE or Denial that will be a whole lot harder to deal with a few months down the road.

Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree

CIS will NOT approve three-year Bachelor’s degrees, especially those earned in India, without more evidence. The problem lies in the missing fourth year. CIS requirements state that an H1B qualified candidate hold a US four-year bachelor’s degree or higher. While it has been shown that most Indian Bachelor’s degrees have the same or greater amount of classroom contact hours and thus college credit hours as the US four-year Bachelor’s degree, CIS requires candidates to account for the missing fourth year. The content vs. duration argument and supporting evidence simply will not work.

If you have, or if your employee or client has a three-year Bachelor’s degree, the missing fourth year will need to be accounted for with progressive work experience. This is work experience in which the candidate took on increasing responsibility and complexity in their work as time went on indicating that skills and knowledge specialized to the field were learned through this work experience. This work experience must be in the candidate’s exact field of employ, which we will come back to soon. Three years of progressive work experience can be converted into one year of college credit in that field, and this conversion must be done by a professor authorized to award college credit for work experience. ONLY work with credential evaluation agencies that work with professors who can do this or it will not be helpful to your case at all.

Degree Specialization Does Not Match the H1B Job

In years past, CIS has accepted degrees in fields related to the candidate’s H1B job to meet the requirements of academic specialization. However, in the past six or seven years, CIS has been virtually only approving degrees that are an EXACT match. Even though employers hire candidates with related degrees, CIS will not flat out approve their visa. If your major, or if your employee or client’s major was in a field different than their H1B job, you can expect an RFE at best if you submit without a credential evaluation.

If this is your situation, or your employee or client’s situation, you will need an evaluation that highlights the college courses taken in the field of the H1B job, as well as a work experience conversion that converts years of progressive work experience in the field into college credit towards a major in that field.

No Degree At All

If this is the situation, you CANNOT submit without a credential evaluation. H1B eligibility leans heavily on education because it is designed to bring highly skilled, highly educated workers to the United States for specialized jobs that the US workforce cannot fill on its own. However, many brilliant candidates are self-taught, learned on the job, or through other means.

If this is your situation, or your employee or client’s situation, a credential evaluation that converts years of work experience into college credit will be needed. Yes, that’s twelve years of progressive work experience in the field.

Before you file, let us review the candidate’s education and work experience to make sure they meet H1B requirements, and decide what needs to be done to fill in any gaps or clear up any questions CIS may have. At TheDegreePeople, we understand the last minute and offer rush delivery options down to THREE HOURS if necessary.

Let us provide a pre-evaluation with all of your options to help prevent or overturn an educational RFE. Simply hit go to ccifree.com and submit the candidate’s educational documents, an accurate resume, the job title, and the desired equivalence. We will get back to you within 24 hours with the pre-evaluation and a full analysis of all of your options.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

]]>Do’s and Don’ts for H1B Filinghttp://www.thedegreepeople.com/dos-and-donts-for-h1b-filing/
Thu, 09 Mar 2017 22:45:26 +0000http://www.thedegreepeople.com/?p=4290CIS begins accepting H1B petitions in just a few weeks! That means if you or your employee or client is planning on petitioning for H1B visa status you’re presently putting the finishing touches on organizing the petition.

Before you file, stop! It’s easy to fall into sloppy habits during the time crunch, but don’t let the pressure cause you to file a petition that will receive an RFE or Denial.

Don’t file without double-checking every document included for consistency. Inconsistent spelling of institutions, workplaces, and even names can hurt the credibility of the petition. Make sure location, education, and employment dates match on all documents.

Don’t assume CIS knows the academic value of a foreign degree.

Don’t assume CIS will see that the candidate’s education and work experience indicate the degree of skill and specialization needed for the candidate to excel at his or her H1B job simply because the employer did.

Don’t file with pages out of order. Making your petition, or your employee or client’s petition readable and easy to digest is key to a favorable outcome.

Do check in with a credential evaluator with experience working with H1B cases and their RFEs before you file to make sure the education is in order.

Do include a foreign credential evaluation in the petition if the degree is from outside of the United States.

Do include a foreign credential evaluation in the petition if you or your employee or client has a degree in a field other than their job, a generalized degree, or no college degree.

Unless the degree is a four year US bachelor’s degree or higher in the exact field of the H1B job, never assume CIS understands the value of the education. CIS approval trends change, and the person adjudicating the petition is most likely NOT an international education expert. You will need to use the petition to hold CIS’ hand and guide them through the story of why you, or your employee or client is H1B qualified.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

Successful candidates meet both of these requirements by having a job that requires an advanced degree – a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent – to perform, and the accompanying education required to perform it. CIS requires this education to be specialized precisely to the field. That’s where candidates run into trouble come filing season.

Do you, or does your employee or client have a generalized degree or a degree specialization is a field other than the job? Then you need a credential evaluation. Even if the degree is from a US institution, CIS requires a degree equivalency in the exact specialization of the candidate’s job. For example, a business degree will not cut it for a job in finance. A sociology degree will not cut it for a job in psychology. A job in biology requires a bachelor’s degree or higher in biology – not chemistry, geology, or physics.

If you or your employee or client has a generalized degree or a degree mismatched to their job, take the transcripts and work experience to a credential evaluator who works regularly with H1B visas and their RFEs. Evaluators who work regularly with RFEs understand what triggers them and how to prevent them. CIS approval trends regarding education have changed in the past six or seven years, and one of those changes is that the degree specialization must be an EXACT match for the job offer. The evaluator can take a close look at the course content of the candidate’s education, and combine that with progressive work experience in the field to write the evaluation you need to prove educational specialization.

Be sure that the evaluation agency you work with has professors on hand who are authorized to issue college credit for work experience. This way, the candidate’s years of work experience in the field can be converted into college credit counting towards their specialized major equivalency. CIS accepts a three years of progressive work experience to one year of college credit in the field equivalency for the H1B visa. Consult with your evaluator to make sure you or your employee or client has the right kind of work experience – and enough of it – before you order your evaluation.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

]]>You Can Sidestep the Most Common H1B RFEshttp://www.thedegreepeople.com/you-can-sidestep-the-most-common-h1b-rfes/
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 23:01:36 +0000http://www.thedegreepeople.com/?p=4266H1B filing season is right around the corner, and the trend of increasing rates of RFEs is expected to continue. That means when you organize your petition, or your employee or client’s petition to file, sidestepping any RFEs that may be thrown your way must be a priority.

At TheDegreePeople, we help our clients answer H1B RFEs every year. Sometimes you can’t control whether or not you or your employee or client receives an RFE because CIS makes mistakes. However, there are a handful of common RFEs that can and should be avoided. Based on recent years, here are two of the most common RFEs that can be easily avoided by anticipating the evidence CIS requires in the initial filing.

Degree does not match the job title

We expect this CIS approval trend that emerged about six or seven years ago to hold strong. Your degree, or your employee client’s degree must be an exact match for the job. H1B visa holders must work specialty jobs and have the specialized skills and expertise required to perform the duties of these jobs. To prove specialization, you or your employee or client must either hold a degree in that exact field, or have the individual credits and work experience to write an equivalency to that exact field. For example, if you or your employee or client has a job in finance and a Bachelor’s degree in business, you need to include a credential evaluation that takes a close look at the candidate’s courses taken in finance, as well as work experience in the field of finance. Work experience – so long as the candidate took on progressively more responsibility through this work – can be converted into years of college credit with three years of work experience equating to one year of college credit in the field. This evaluation is necessary to sidestep this VERY common RFE.

Three-year bachelor’s degree

At TheDegreePeople, we work with many clients with Indian three-year Bachelor’s degrees. Every year, we see that without a credential evaluation, virtually all of these clients receive an RFE. In the past, we’ve been able to answer these RFEs by showing that the course content of three-year degrees is the equivalent to a US four-year bachelor degree by converting classroom contact hours into college credit hours using the Carnegie Unit conversion of fifteen classroom contact hours to one hour of college credit. However, last year it did not work. Luckily, we always have a plan B.

This year, if you or your employee or client has a three-year bachelor’s degree, you should understand right off the bat that your client will need a work experience conversion to get the H1B visa approved. CIS is hung up on that missing fourth year, and at the end of the day, it’s up to them whether or not to approve your visa, or your employee or client’s visa. Consult with a credential evaluation agency about the candidate’s education and work experience and include a credential evaluation with a work experience conversion in the initial H1B filing on April 1st.

If either or both of these situation matches that of you or your employee or client, do not file without the appropriate work experience conversion. It’s important to remember that not all credential evaluation agencies are authorized to make this work experience conversion. Only a college or university professor is authorized to issue college credit for years of progressive work experience. The credential evaluation agency you want to work with has these professors on staff or on contract to write the evaluation you or your employee or client needs to sidestep an education RFE.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

]]>How Can You Avoid that H1B RFE?http://www.thedegreepeople.com/how-can-you-avoid-that-h1b-rfe/
Fri, 03 Feb 2017 16:50:01 +0000http://www.thedegreepeople.com/?p=4261H1B filing season is coming up fast. April 1st is right around the corner and you want to make sure you have the time you need to file a petition that’s going to be approved.

In the haste of preparation, it’s important to keep in mind that the rate of RFEs is high and climbing, and submitting a petition that doesn’t meet H1B requirements is a costly waste of time. Meeting H1B educational requirements clearly and initially is the key to visa approval. Successful H1B candidates must hold a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its foreign equivalent in their field of employ. This sounds simple enough, but matters get tricky when a candidate holds a degree or vocational certificate from outside of the United States.

Many candidates are misinformed about their US educational equivalent. This leads to submitting petitions that are doomed to failure. For example, some candidates have earned diplomas and certificates that are not the equivalent of degrees in the United States. Sometimes, the value of the degree gets lost in translation into English. Some vocational certifications from other countries ARE the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree even though the US vocational certification is not. Foreign credential evaluation is a highly nuanced process that encompasses international education, college and graduate program admissions policies, international trade and commerce agreements, federal case law, and CIS precedent decisions. All of these factors come into play when discerning whether or not you education, or your employee or client’s education meets H1B requirements, and does so with respect to CIS approval trends.

Before you get too far on the H1B petition, take the candidate’s education and work experience to a credential evaluation agency. The right agency for you works regularly with H1B cases and their RFEs. When you call or email, they will respond promptly and ask about your or your employee or client’s job and visa. If the agency does not ask about the job and visa, look elsewhere.

Don’t file an H1B petition with the wrong education. If a candidate does not meet CIS educational requirements with their foreign degree, they may be able to meet equivalency requirements by including a work experience conversion with a detailed credential evaluation.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.

]]>Does the Beneficiary Meet H-1B Education Requirements?http://www.thedegreepeople.com/does-the-beneficiary-meet-h-1b-education-requirements/
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 23:40:24 +0000http://www.thedegreepeople.com/?p=4178We’re deep in RFE season, which means at least one in four of every H-1B beneficiary selected in the lottery has likely received one. Education RFEs are common for H-1B beneficiaries because this particular visa relies heavily on the education of each candidate in terms of requirements. In fact, your eligibility, or your employee or client’s eligibility is primarily determined by the education.

So does the beneficiary meet H-1B education requirements?

CIS requires that an H-1B beneficiary have a specialty occupation that requires a US bachelor’s degree or higher, or its foreign equivalent. You, or your employee or client must have the proper degree for this job, and in recent years CIS has been taking a step further and requiring beneficiaries to hold a degree in the exact field of the job.

To meet these requirements, the following three criteria must be met:

The beneficiary has been hired for a specialty occupation.

The beneficiary holds a US bachelor’s degree or higher or its equivalent.

That degree is in the field of the specialty occupation.

To show that you, or your employee or client has secured a position in a specialty occupation, you must provide documentation that this job – as well as similar jobs for similar companies in the industry – requires an advanced degree to perform. You can do this by submitting a copy of the ad for the job that spells out its minimum requirements, as well as ads for similar job as discussed earlier. If this particular job requires a more specialized skill set than is typical for this position, include an expert opinion letter stating why this is so.

Once you have established that your job, or your employee or client’s job is a specialty occupation, you need to find out whether they have the correct degree. If your job, or your employee or client’s job requires a minimum of a US bachelor’s degree, you, or your employee or client must hold a US bachelor’s degree. Since many H-1B beneficiaries earned their degrees outside of the United States, you will need to submit a credential evaluation along with the transcripts. Some countries have three-year bachelor’s degree structures where academic content is condensed. Some countries have degrees that do not call themselves degrees but are evaluated to be the equivalent of post-secondary education in the United States. One such example is the Indian Chartered Accountancy certificate, which is the functional equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree in accounting. Some beneficiaries who went to school in the United States never completed a degree but have the skills and knowledge necessary to perform specialized job duties. All of these situations require a careful evaluation that takes detailed account of your coursework, or your employee or client’s coursework, as well as work experience in the field. Missing years – whether they be from incomplete education or condensed education from abroad – can be accounted for by converting years of progressive work experience into years of college credit using a three years of work to one year of college credit ratio.

Second, your degree, or your employee or client’s degree must be a match for the field of employ. While employers will hire candidates who hold degrees in related fields because there is enough skill and knowledge overlap, particularly if they have worked in the exact field they have been hired to, CIS will not approve their visas. This is a recent CIS trend, one that does not look like it will go away any time soon. If you, or your employee or client has the right degree in the wrong field – or in a generalized field – talk to a credential evaluator. An evaluation that takes a close look at the course content of your, your employee or your client’s education and their work experience is needed to write the equivalencies that convert years of work experience in the field into college credit in that specialization, and also count course credits earned in that field towards that specialization as well.

Sometimes, your education, or your employee or client’s education will not meet the requirements of an H-1B visa. This is best to find out BEFORE you file. While the H-1B visa has very strong benefits, if it is the wrong visa it is not worth taking the time and money to petition for it. There may be another work visa that better suits the particular job and education.

However, if you or your employee or client received an RFE regarding the job or education, sit down with a credential evaluator and go over your, or your employee or client’s education and work history. Find out if the gaps in your degree or your employee or client’s degree can be filled in with course content and work experience.

About the Author

Sheila Danzig

Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of TheDegreePeople.com a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a no charge analysis of any difficult case, RFEs, Denials, or NOIDs, please go to http://www.ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.